Diesel Exhaust Linked To Lung Cancer

That's an on-road engine with much tighter regulations. Just because it burns the same fuel doesn't mean it's equally bad for causing cancer. Newer buses can have emissions cleaner than the ambient air in urban environments.

 

...yes I agree and Fuzzy1 had a good point re: heavy diesel.
What the heck is heavy diesel? Ships run on heavy diesel that is nothing like regular diesel. Believe we may be debating an article that lacks much value as it stands.

 

Phase-in started in 1996, but yeah.. and there's obviously a lot of existing units out there. Luckily ULSD helps with particulates.

Heavy diesel likely means heavy-duty diesel which for vehicles means >8,500 lb GVWR. There isn't a real definition for nonroad equipment that I know of. It is not likely referring to residual oil aka bunker fuel.

 

On and off road equipment have different regulations they need to meet. Caterpillar stopped making highway engines in part because of emissions regulations but they still make engines for offroad equipment.

 

I still find it interesting that with the increase in asthma and other related disorders among young children that there isn't a clamor for eventually eliminating diesel school buses. There's still plenty of particulates coming out of the tailpipe. As for newer buses with cleaner emissions than ambient air, well, I can't say I've seen any in or around NYC.

 

Are a lot of the NYC schools still heated with coal?

 

I don't think it is the kids on the buses breathing much of those fumes. The drivers behind get most of it. Do any school or transit buses meet the same emissions standards required of diesel passenger cars?

Similarly, the lack of Mansfield bars on the back of school buses doesn't hurt the kids, just the occupants of cars that run into or get pushed into the buses. Some of the crash pictures are pretty ugly.

 

think about people taking a bike.. instead of car to be more for the environment and healthy
well no filter there like in your car.

 

Our latest buses are clean emissions and often with hybrids systems. The new London bus goes one step further than hybrid busses. [ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Bus_for_London]New Bus for London - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

The problem is that buses have a long service life and rack up many many miles. Unfortunately the small bus company in our town are holding onto their buses longer and longer. The super double deckers with leather seats that were once the envy of other towns are now about 8 or 10 years old and comply with poor emission legislation. Our school buses are just the 10 year old buses removed from daily service, painted yellow and stuck on the school run. Not very clean on emissions, though I do see them getting spot checked every 6 months or so.

What's the answer?

 

No, vehicles over a certain GVWR are classified differently and don't have to meet passenger vehicle emissions standards. Even 3/4 ton trucks fall into the non-passenger car category I believe. It's rated in terms of g/hp-hr. There's a good article on the standards at Emission Standards: USA: Heavy-Duty Truck and Bus Engines

 

...can you imagine if USA had historically gone diesel like EU instead of gasoline?
With all the miles driven here, we would have been smoked out.

 

Ridiculous! Next they'll be telling us that smoking causes cancer.